Opposition Leader Mir Hossein Mousavi

Iran on Sunday launched what it described as its biggest air-defense drill ever with the aim of preparing to protect its nuclear sites from possible airstrikes as international talks to resolve the long stalemate over the nation's atomic research program falter. Meanwhile, opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi continued to put pressure on the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, praising protesters for turning an annual march against the U.S. into an anti-government rally that was met by violence by security forces.

Thousands of Iranian government supporters gathered for a Friday prayer sermon rally meant to counter the resurgent opposition movement that staged a boisterous and scattered day of protests this week. But Iranian authorities Friday appeared to have backed off calls to execute Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the opposition leaders who called for the protests held Monday. The two reformist politicians, now under virtual house arrest, have called on supporters to head to the streets again Sunday.

The months-long confrontation between Iran's budding opposition movement and a hard-line government determined to stamp it out escalated sharply over the weekend, as parts of the capital became engulfed in fiery political protest and demonstrations broke out across the country on the occasion of an important Shiite religious holiday. Opposition websites reported as many as nine people killed in Tehran and the western city of Tabriz on Sunday during Ashura, a commemoration of the 7th century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad.

Iran's beleaguered opposition movement, under enormous government pressure but encouraged by popular uprisings throughout the Middle East, is calling for another round of protests Sunday, raising the stakes in its confrontation with Tehran's hard-line Islamist government. A statement posted Thursday to the website of former prime minister and 2009 presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi called on Iranians to take part in memorial services to mark the religiously significant seventh day after the deaths of two Iranians during raucous Feb. 14 opposition protests in Tehran and other cities.

Iran has deployed a special police unit to monitor websites for political material and prosecute those deemed to be spreading lies, Iranian media reported. Many opposition websites are already banned. But the new 12-member unit, which will report to the prosecutor's office, seems to signal an effort to crack down harder on those who refuse to accept President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection, tainted by allegations of fraud, in June. The protest movement initially saw thousands pouring into the streets in June and July to press claims that opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi was the rightful winner.

September 21, 2009 | Jeffrey Fleishman and Ramin Mostaghim, Mostaghim is a special correspondent.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attempted attempted to unify Iranians today by blaming foreign media for "poisoning the atmosphere" and urged his nation to resist the "killer cancer" of an Israel backed by Western powers. Delivering a sermon at Tehran University before a crowd that included President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and opposition cleric Hashemi Rafsanjani, Khamenei said the West had failed in its attempts to undermine the government with large opposition protests during countrywide anti-Israeli rallies on Friday.

Political turmoil built Sunday over the burning of an image of Iran's revolutionary founder, which was aired, in a controversial move, on state television. Accusations that the incident was carried out by anti-government demonstrators sparked protests as well as threats against reformist leaders. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday said reformist politicians and anti-government demonstrators had defiled the image of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, during National Students Day protests last week.

Iranian authorities launched a provocative attack on the opposition movement today by announcing a special investigation into prominent cleric Mehdi Karroubi over his accusations that security forces raped and tortured protesters demonstrating against the disputed June reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The move against Karroubi -- a revered figure from Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution -- is a direct attack on the heart of the opposition. It's an indication that the government is increasing pressure on top dissenters, even clerics, and it follows the death sentences handed down in recent days against at least two anti-government protesters.

Hard-line supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad employed the nation's judiciary against two major moderate political parties in their boldest attempt to excise Iran's reform movement from the political scene. The prosecution at the fourth session of an extraordinary legal proceeding, derided by international and domestic legal experts as a "show trial," put a severely disabled reformist leader on trial and urged the judge to outlaw the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Islamic Revolution Mujahedin Organization, two pillars of the reform movement that took control of the country's presidency and parliament during a liberal era that began in the late 1990s and ended earlier this decade.

Students in the western Iranian city of Ahvaz in recent days launched an impromptu protest in a campus auditorium. In Kashan on Monday, a group took over the campus cafeteria, singing anti-government songs. A couple of weeks ago in Tehran, others cheered wildly as someone threw a shoe at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's former culture minister. Then on Monday, students shouted down the ex-minister, Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, once again. Largely absent from international media reports and discounted by Western policymakers more focused on Iran's nuclear program, the protest movement that erupted after Ahmadinejad's disputed June 12 reelection has continued to smolder, mostly on college campuses.

The shooting death of Ali Habibi-Mousavi in Tehran has all the earmarks of a political assassination. The nephew of opposition leader and recent presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi reportedly had received death threats before he was shot in the heart by men believed to be security forces or pro-government militia. On Monday, Habibi-Mousavi's family said his body was seized from the hospital, apparently to prevent them from holding a funeral that could ignite more protests -- a cycle that served Islamic revolutionaries when they toppled the shah 30 years ago. The Iranian government denies killing demonstrators and claims that "foreign terrorists" murdered Habibi-Mousavi.

The months-long confrontation between Iran's budding opposition movement and a hard-line government determined to stamp it out escalated sharply over the weekend, as parts of the capital became engulfed in fiery political protest and demonstrations broke out across the country on the occasion of an important Shiite religious holiday. Opposition websites reported as many as nine people killed in Tehran and the western city of Tabriz on Sunday during Ashura, a commemoration of the 7th century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad.

Political turmoil built Sunday over the burning of an image of Iran's revolutionary founder, which was aired, in a controversial move, on state television. Accusations that the incident was carried out by anti-government demonstrators sparked protests as well as threats against reformist leaders. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday said reformist politicians and anti-government demonstrators had defiled the image of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, during National Students Day protests last week.

Iran on Sunday launched what it described as its biggest air-defense drill ever with the aim of preparing to protect its nuclear sites from possible airstrikes as international talks to resolve the long stalemate over the nation's atomic research program falter. Meanwhile, opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi continued to put pressure on the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, praising protesters for turning an annual march against the U.S. into an anti-government rally that was met by violence by security forces.

Iran has deployed a special police unit to monitor websites for political material and prosecute those deemed to be spreading lies, Iranian media reported. Many opposition websites are already banned. But the new 12-member unit, which will report to the prosecutor's office, seems to signal an effort to crack down harder on those who refuse to accept President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection, tainted by allegations of fraud, in June. The protest movement initially saw thousands pouring into the streets in June and July to press claims that opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi was the rightful winner.

Students in the western Iranian city of Ahvaz in recent days launched an impromptu protest in a campus auditorium. In Kashan on Monday, a group took over the campus cafeteria, singing anti-government songs. A couple of weeks ago in Tehran, others cheered wildly as someone threw a shoe at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's former culture minister. Then on Monday, students shouted down the ex-minister, Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, once again. Largely absent from international media reports and discounted by Western policymakers more focused on Iran's nuclear program, the protest movement that erupted after Ahmadinejad's disputed June 12 reelection has continued to smolder, mostly on college campuses.

The international pressure and diplomatic embarrassment facing Iran after the secret of its second nuclear plant was revealed by the U.S. on Friday are deepening the rancor between the country's opposition movement and hard-liners loyal to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Nuclear development is a point of national pride for Iranians, but the program that once united them is now intensifying the differences between political reformers, who increasingly want to engage the West, and the hard-liners who for years have resisted what they regard as international meddling.

Tens of thousands of opposition demonstrators chanting, "Not Gaza, not Lebanon, I sacrifice my life for Iran," swarmed the streets of Tehran today, audaciously turning an annual commemoration in support of the Palestinian cause into the first major rally against the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in six weeks. The president, whose disputed reelection three months ago triggered Iran's worst political domestic crisis in decades, ignored the protesters, some of whom confronted him with chants of "Liar!

Iranian authorities launched a provocative attack on the opposition movement today by announcing a special investigation into prominent cleric Mehdi Karroubi over his accusations that security forces raped and tortured protesters demonstrating against the disputed June reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The move against Karroubi -- a revered figure from Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution -- is a direct attack on the heart of the opposition. It's an indication that the government is increasing pressure on top dissenters, even clerics, and it follows the death sentences handed down in recent days against at least two anti-government protesters.

The international pressure and diplomatic embarrassment facing Iran after the secret of its second nuclear plant was revealed by the U.S. on Friday are deepening the rancor between the country's opposition movement and hard-liners loyal to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Nuclear development is a point of national pride for Iranians, but the program that once united them is now intensifying the differences between political reformers, who increasingly want to engage the West, and the hard-liners who for years have resisted what they regard as international meddling.